Plan 10: Slip Through the Rules¶

"This is my last plan," said Wobble, hands on hips. "I'll find a hole somewhere. Some rule that's not quite tight. One little crack and I can slip through."

Sam grinned. "I'll put guards in the deepest layer of the computer. Where Boop himself can't argue with them."

Sam built five guards. Each one had a job, and a personality:

• 📁 The Path Guard — only opens approved doors. Knows every room Boop is allowed in, and slams the rest.
• 🌐 The Web Guard — watches the windows. Some websites are fine. Some are not. The Web Guard knows which is which.
• 🔁 The Loop Guard — notices when you're going in circles. Tap, tap, tap on the shoulder: "you've done this three times now."
• 📏 The Size Guard — checks if things will fit. If a file is too big for Boop's brain, the Size Guard turns it away at the door.
• ⏱️ The Time Guard — has a stopwatch. When time's up, time's up.

These guards lived in the deepest layer of the computer — deeper than Boop's instructions, deeper than the brain. Even if Wobble talked the brain into wanting to do something silly, the guards would say "Sorry, no," and that was the end of it.

Wobble's tenth plan: foiled.